Electronic Data Capture (EDC) is a modern breakthrough in data collection processes that makes patient data collection easier and more streamlined. The main users of this digital system include those who are involved in clinical research studies, such as sponsors, sites, and contract research organizations. Have you ever used EDCs in your clinical trials and wondered how this modern data collection system improved the quality of data used in your research undertakings?

Understanding Electronic Data Capture

Electronic data capture is a form of data collection that uses special computerized systems for data storage, collation, and analysis. Typically, the data capture system runs on Internet servers and is accessible via web browser services. Data can be taken from direct digital sources such as electronic patient data sheets, or can be extracted from paper sources and manually uploaded to the system. Check out the video to learn more:

Typical Electronic Data Capture Users

Computerized data capture systems are used by life science organizations as well as pharmaceutical companies. They perform various clinical trials and are aided by the EDCs and clinical trial management software. They are also used by primary patient data collectors such as nurses and allied health professionals, as well as secondary data processors like medical data managers.

Why Use EDC Systems?

Digital systems for medical data collection are easier to use, more accessible to researchers, flexible, secured and more work-efficient. If you are planning on spearheading a clinical trial, EDCs can help make the tedious work of data collection lighter. Itll save you several hours of work and reduce the overall research costs in the long run.

The Ability to Improve Clinical Trial Data

While using EDCs can have several advantages like easier processing of complex tasks and added data security, it is quite clear that improvement of data quality is the paramount advantage. How do EDCs elevate data quality to better heights?

- EDCs Create Consistent Data

Research demands consistency to come up with reliable conclusions. Hence, starting off with consistent patient data can give your clinical trial a streamlined beginning. Data consistency is achieved by EDCs through the use of standardized collection forms available in the chosen clinical trial software.

- They Filter and Clean the Collected Data

EDCs are smart enough to filter unnecessary data and keep those that are relevant to the clinical researchs needs. They come programmed with editors and checkers to ensure that your encoded data is in proper format before being uploaded to the main database.

EDCs commonly have user-friendly interfaces that allow you and your team to navigate through the different databases seamlessly. The search function of these software programs can greatly help you in looking for specific data queries. The easy navigation quality of EDCs increases data organization, leading to increased clinical trial efficiency.

- Security for Clinical Trial Data is Strictly Observed

You can be sure that your trial patients confidentiality and safety are met through the use of security-laden EDC software. The systems run on secured platforms to ensure that no information or data related to a patient will leak out somewhere in the Web. Safety measures allow you and your clinical trial team to exclusively access the database, greatly reducing the risks of database corruption and outsider intrusion.

- EDCs for Better Clinical Data Solutions

Your clinical trial is supposed to go by smoothly within a shorter time frame to quickly provide medical innovations to patients in need of them. Hence, using EDCs will keep your clinical trials data clean and intact to make the most out of your research for the general publics welfare. EDCs are starting to shape the modern clinical trial management systems by providing a more efficient way of data capture and storage.

Conclusion:

The data collection, collation, and analysis phase of your clinical trials is made easier and faster thanks to electronic data capture systems. EDCs provide unique eClinical solutions by creating an easy way to manage the data needed for the clinical trials completion. EDCs improve data quality through the following activities:

- Filtering unnecessary data

- Ensuring data integrity through several built-in checks

- Standardizing methods to record data

- Providing easy-to-use navigation tools

- Stringent security measures for optimal data protection

Improved data quality leads to better research processing. This, in turn, translates into highly reliable results and better medical innovations. A faster clinical trial commencement is also evident, making the researched medical innovations more readily available to the public. All these things thanks to EDCs, so go ahead and try out an EDC program fit for your research needs today.

Your destination will be on the right… the iPhone GPS told the woman who was eagerly expecting to be sipping on her favorite Starbucks latte as part of her morning ritual. Only there was no Starbucks on the right, actually there wasnt anything but a small 4 pump gas station. Maybe I put the wrong address in she thought to herself as she looked again at her phone. To her disappointment she was at the right location, there just wasnt a Starbucks.

While this story is not real it is an all too common experience for users of consumer grade GPS technology. It may have been a disappointment to the young woman expecting her morning coffee; it was nothing more than an inconvenience to her in the end. On the other hand, what is there was more at stake? What if the young woman was the driver for a company that was making a time sensitive delivery with money on the line? The wasted time one the clock, company fuel, and fees for missing the delivery deadline.

GPS tracking should assist a company in saving time and expenses, not the other way around. Using cell phones or consumer grade GPS is not an efficient way to run a professional fleet. Working for a client who has a deadline to meet will not be quite as understanding when their delivery is late as your friend might be when you show up late to their party because of incorrect GPS navigation.

There was another story about a photographer that was hired to photograph a surprise party for an executive of a large corporation. The company agreed to pay a large sum to the photographer to take pictures of the surprise and the party that followed. The photographer used their phones GPS system to navigate to the address, but was rerouted several times due to traffic from road construction. What started out as a short 15 minute delay turned into a 30 minute delay, then an hour, and then one hour and a half before he finally arrived. Unfortunately the big moment was not caught on camera and then company rightfully refused to pay the fee they agreed upon.

Using a phones navigation system is perfectly fine for everyday errands, but it is not the way successful businesses operate when large sums of money are on the line. Implementing commercial grade GPS tracking is the preferred route for businesses in order to avoid relying on bad navigation. It allows a dispatcher to see a drivers location and then communicate to them a better route to help them stay on time and on task.